GeForce GTX 260 vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which has a clock speed of 772 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1002 MHz. It also uses a 384-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 512 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 62 Watts (34%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB should be much faster than the GeForce GTX 260 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 80496 (72%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB will be quite a bit (about 34%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 260. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12544 (34%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB will be a lot (approximately 130%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 260, and will be capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 20928 (130%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.